Japan’s Financial Services Agency, tasked with monitoring the country’s cryptocurrency exchanges, has quietly been pressuring platforms to delist privacy coins. Coincheck has already done so in the wake of the $400 million NEM hack. If fellow exchanges follow suit, it could signal the beginning of the end for privacy coins such as zcash and monero on Japanese and possibly even global exchanges.
Also read: Bitcoin Cash Adoption Continues: Crypto Cafebar, Gold Vendor, Concealed-Carry Clothing
FSA Gives Privacy Coins the Thumbs Down
Japan’s FSA is reportedly urging exchanges to move away from privacy coins, which it associates with money laundering, drug dealing and other nefarious activities. Coins such as monero, zcash, and dash all fall into this category, even though the latter two provide opt-in privacy only, a feature that most users don’t enable. Forbes reports sources close to the FSA as confirming that the regulator is clamping down on anonymous currencies because they are difficult to trace.
The news, while not surprising, is nevertheless concerning. Many of crypto’s most passionate advocates were attracted to the technology in the first place for its ability to provide a measure of anonymity on an increasingly surveilled and privacy-free internet. Without optional anonymity, or at least pseudonymity, cryptocurrencies lose much of their appeal, and individuals lose their right to send payment to their peers without broadcasting their intentions to the world.
“Problematic” Monero Gets the Heave-Ho
If there’s one privacy coin that unites global lawmakers and regulators in their condemnation, it’s monero. At a meeting on April 10, Forbes reports that “Monero and Dash were both mentioned as highly problematic virtual currencies”. If true, the FSA appears to view privacy coins the way law enforcement forces view encryption: they don’t like it because it works
